Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0019163 (hepatitis B)
 38,309 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cuba's Transfusion Medicine Program (TMP) is a subsystem of the country's National Health System. The TMP's objective is to ensure hemotherapy with blood that is safe and sufficient for all the individuals who need it. The TMP subsystem is made up of the National Commission on Transfusion Medicine, the Institute of Hematology and Immunology, 37 clinical services, 44 blood banks, 120 collection centers, 19 mobile units, and 37 blood certification laboratories. Additional facilities include a laboratory for plasma separation, a laboratory that produces leukocyte interferon and transfer factor, and two laboratories that produce reagents for blood classification and blood diagnosis symptoms. In Cuba, blood donation is voluntary. Since 1997 approximately 5% of the population per year has donated blood, thus meeting the goal recommended by the Pan American Health Organization of one voluntary blood donation annually for every 20 persons. During 2002, 563,204 blood donations were received, and there were 445,898 transfusions of blood or blood components. All donations are individually screened for HIV 1 and 2, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis, thus meeting the country's current regulations. In 2002 these screening measures led to discarding, respectively, 0.12%, 0.60%, 0.71%, and 1.8% of the blood donations. Although the prevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus I and II in Cuba is very low, this test will soon be added to the screening process.
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PMID:[The transfusion medicine program in Cuba]. 1275 64

The concept of antiviral therapy with interferon for chronic hepatitis B emerged in the middle of the seventies and was supported by the suppressive effect of human interferon on HBV-DNA polymerase levels in 3 patients. This effect of leukocyte interferon was confirmed in a small controlled study of patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B; however, no effect was found on other indices of hepatitis B. More than 10 years elapsed before one large RCT demonstrated clinically relevant virological responses in 35% vs. < 10% in placebo and led to registration of interferon for hepatitis B. Responses in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B were very high during treatment but high relapse rates eliminated most of the long-time treatment effect. Interferon has now to compete with highly effective nucleoside analog therapy, but still has a prominent place as a limited duration therapy leading to sustained and sometimes complete responses. In the middle of the eighties, interferon was tested in 10 patients with non-A, non-B chronic hepatitis and ALT normalization was observed in the majority. After the discovery of the hepatitis C virus and the introduction of the HCVRNA PCR test it became clear that interferon therapy can cure hepatitis C infections. Widespread therapy was introduced after a co-drug ribavirin was found to reduce relapse rates and two pivotal trials with recombinant interferon showed sustained virological responses in about 50% of patients, with much higher positive outcomes in genotype 2 and 3. Therapy-induced sustained virological remission has been shown to reduce liver-related death, liver failure and to a lesser extent hepatocellular carcinoma. Interferon has become the key drug for hepatitis C.
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PMID:Clinical use of interferon in hepatitis B and C. 1973

Interferon alpha-2 (IFN alpha-2) products have been widely used as antivirals for the treatment of serious diseases such as hepatitis B and C. However, reports of adverse reactions following treatment have prompted investigations into the cause of these undesirable events. In this study size-exclusion HPLC (SE-HPLC) methods coupled with intrinsic fluorescence detection were developed for evaluating the stability and degradation profiles of IFN alpha-2 drug substances and drug products. The method allowed baseline resolution of the active ingredient from the excipients present in the finished products that included large amounts of albumin. Limits of detection (S/N>or=3) for IFN alpha-2a and IFN alpha-2b were 32 ng/mL and 28 ng/mL, respectively and good repeatability of chromatographic profiles (%RSD<2.1) was obtained. High molecular weight (HMW) aggregates with apparent molecular weight of approximately 650 kDa as well as dimers, denatured and reduced variants were successfully identified and separated from native IFN alpha-2 proteins. This chromatographic method, which quantitatively measures physical and chemical changes taking place in solution formulations, was found to be capable of monitoring IFN alpha-2a and IFN alpha-2b stability. Potency assay results revealed up to 87% decrease in biological activity of the physically and chemically altered variants compared to the original IFNs.
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PMID:Study of aggregation, denaturation and reduction of interferon alpha-2 products by size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and biological assays. 1993 Oct 86


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